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Extraterrestrial

Are there trillions of alien civilizations ?

By T.K. Randall
May 22, 2016 · Comment icon 75 comments

How many alien civilizations could there be ? Image Credit: CC BY-SA 2.0 Hajor
A new study has suggested that the universe is likely to be teeming with extraterrestrial life forms.
The recent discovery of over 1,200 new extrasolar worlds by NASA's Kepler Space Telescope has brought in to focus just how common planets actually are in the cosmos as well as how many potentially habitable worlds might be out there, just waiting to be found.

According to a new study co-authored by Woodruff Sullivan and Adam Frank, the odds of there being no other intelligent life forms in the entire universe are ridiculously slim.

"Even if you are pretty pessimistic and think that you'd have to search through 100 billion (habitable zone) planets before you found one where a civilization developed, then there have still been a trillion civilizations over cosmic history !" wrote Frank.

"When I think about that, my mind reels - even if there is just a one in a 100 billion chance of evolution creating exo-civilizations, the universe still has made so many of them that we are swamped by histories other than our own."
As part of their study, Frank and Sullivan also revisited astronomer Frank Drake's famous 1961 equation used to estimate the number of planets that might be home to alien civilizations.

By updating some of the variables and by simplifying the equation, the pair have managed to create what they believe to be a more accurate representation of the probabilities of alien life.

"With so many stars and planets filling the cosmos, it boggles the mind to think that we're the only clever life to have made an appearance," said SETI's Seth Shostak.

"Frank and Sullivan use new research indicating that roughly one in five stars is orbited by a planet that could nurture biology."

Source: Inquisitr.com | Comments (75)




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Recent comments on this story
Comment icon #66 Posted by Noteverythingisaconspiracy 8 years ago
Again the power of a OTHR system isn't really relevant here, because that is not what I am talking about. I am not sure about the american ballistic missile warning system, but the equivelant russian system, Daryal, has a transmitting power of atleast 50 megawatts. (possibly 350)  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Daryal_radar As Merc14 pointed out the Voyager transmitters aren't anywhere near 0,8 megawatts. It's power output is tiny, but we are still able to pick it up with the right equipment. It is expected that we can keep contact with the Voyager probes until around 2025, by which time the... [More]
Comment icon #67 Posted by seeder 8 years ago
we havent even explored Mars properly, tho a new rover is going to look for life....then we have Europa, a watery/ice world, Ganymede another with salty oceans..these things are within our reach and lifetimes more planets/moons with water http://www.popularmechanics.com/space/a14555/water-worlds-in-our-solar-system/
Comment icon #68 Posted by Merc14 8 years ago
NEIC, do those radars have frequency hopping built in?  If they do I would guess they would be dismissed as background noise. NASA/JPL is planning a mission to Europa/Jupiter with a 2022 launch window.    It is called the Europa Clipper and will enter a long, looping orbit around Jupiter where it will do approximately 45 flybys of the Moon with its nine instruments.       http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/missions/europa-mission/ I would guess after accumulating extensive data from this specialized mission they will design a craft with a lander of some kind.
Comment icon #69 Posted by TheGreatBeliever 8 years ago
That many? Thousands or millions maybe. But billions...
Comment icon #70 Posted by Noteverythingisaconspiracy 8 years ago
Sorry I don't know. I don't remember where I read it, but I think Badeskov brought it up aswell, so maybe he remembers ?
Comment icon #71 Posted by badeskov 8 years ago
They do indeed have frequency hopping built in to reduce jamming and other disturbances the enemy may incur, however, it will not show up as noise. There will always be a very distinct carrier present and with frequency hopping, it will pop into existence in the frequency window ET is monitoring and then pop out again when hopping to a new frequency, unless ET is monitoring a broad set of frequencies. Sort of the the WOW! signal that was only seen for a short period of time, very annoying feature indeed. I wrote a blurp about the Ballistic Missile Early Warning System some years ago (well, a... [More]
Comment icon #72 Posted by Saitung 8 years ago
Absolutely freetoroam!
Comment icon #73 Posted by Saitung 8 years ago
Beautifully Put Hammerclaw, Awesome!
Comment icon #74 Posted by Saitung 8 years ago
  Old News Indeed, but still interesting to watch it progress. Probability 1. Here's the problem with us arrogant human beings. Every year we find that there is far more we DON'T know than DO know. Our KNOWN universe, just the portion we can even physically perceive has more suns than grains of sand on every beach on earth. Now these are SUNS, not planets, do the math. In earth's 4-billion-year history there has been five extinction periods that we know of, all resulting in us being here now. We have not even thought about the Higher Density beings that must exist on higher dimensions than o... [More]
Comment icon #75 Posted by Paranomali 8 years ago
I can't wait to find out. I hope it's in my lifetime!


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